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Like gin and tonic, myth and history make for a classic cocktail.

Contrary to many accounts, there’s no evidence that the famous drink was actually invented by British officers in India to make their malaria medicine more palatable. That said, it did become popular there, and quinine, an ingredient in tonic water, does help treat malaria.

Like gin and tonic, myth and history make for a classic cocktail.

Contrary to many accounts, there’s no evidence that the famous drink was actually invented by British officers in India to make their malaria medicine more palatable. That said, it did become popular there, and quinine, an ingredient in tonic water, does help treat malaria.

Similarly, there is no evidence that Winston Churchill ever actually said, “The gin and tonic has saved more Englishmen’s lives, and minds, than all the doctors in the Empire,” a quote that seems to have been invented online in the early 2010s. Indeed, recent research suggests that Churchill didn’t actually like gin that much, although his enthusiasm for both empire and alcohol were very real.

Imperial nostalgia is a potent branding force—even when the brand in question postdates the empire itself. Consider Gordon’s and Bombay Sapphire. Gordon’s is generally considered a budget friendly gin, retailing for around $15 a bottle in the United States. Bombay Sapphire, in turn, is a mid-tier, or self-described premium, gin, a bit pricier at $25 or so. Yet that 10-dollar difference belies a far more profound divergence in how the two brands relate to the past.

Bombay Sapphire was created in 1986 by the British beverage giant International Distillers & Vintners. Its precursor, the Original Bombay Dry Gin, was launched in 1960 by an American entrepreneur. Everything about the branding evokes gin’s association with the British Empire. Bombay and pictures of Queen Victoria speak for themselves. Sapphire, and the associated blue bottle color, refer to the Star of Bombay, an 182-carat sapphire mined in British Ceylon.

Gordon’s, by contrast, was already popular when Queen Victoria came to the throne. First launched by Scottish distiller Alexander Gordon in 1769, it’s the gin that the men building the British Empire were actually drinking. In the 19th century, Gordon’s initially gained purchase through its association with the British navy. By the 1950s, admirers included Ernest Hemingway, James Bond and Queen Elizabeth.

British historian and co-author of The Invention of Tradition, Eric Hobsbawm in Jan. 1976.Wesley/Getty Images

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